Cashew and Rural Development Center – Creating Prosperity Through Cashew Production

The Cashew and Rural Development Centre of Itoculo, located in northern province of Nampula, was first launched in 1996. Since the beginning, its objective has been twofold:

to increase the livelihoods of local small-scale farmers through training them in sustainable farming techniques, in particular in cashew cultivation, production and related agro-processing, and secondly,

to contribute to the overall wellbeing of the local communities through various activities promoting education, health and hygiene, including constructing and rehabilitating water systems, building latrines and establishing pre-schools.

The Center consists of the Training Centre facilities, a 110-hectare cashew plantation, a cashew processing unit and a chestnut and cashew juice factory. The Program is also supporting the running of 67 pre-schools in the surrounding communities.

In addition to providing a venue and demonstration fields for the various trainings, the Center also has its own cashew production. The cashew nuts are sold on the local markets and the juice, produced from the cashew fruit (the cashew apple).